A permanent thread for politics in countries that don't have their politics threads. All politics are game, but there is a specific focus on elections.

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

The Czech Republic seems like it's on its way to rejecting its own version of Trump, the incumbent president Miloš Zeman.I hope Nicos Anastasiades wins in Cyprus. From what I've read he's been great for the Cyprus dispute. I think this is worth overlooking the awful bank bailout he did.

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

Unfortunately, I have nothing to contribute at this point as far as elections go, since the last piece of international news I can recall (apart from the whole "asshole countries" gaffe) is that France apparently had a major problem recently with several companies having to pull baby's milk back off the shelves due to a salmonella infestation, but AFAIC the sooner Modi gets kicked out, the better. The amount of support he's gotten ever since the beginning of the last electoral season in India is just...what. The BJP's arguments are so backwards, too. Them accusing Rahul Gandhi of all people of trying to divide the people on communal grounds would be like Donald Chump calling Hillary Clinton a racist.

Completely understand your pain. I was shocked that the man in charge of Gujarat during the riots of 2002 could become PM in the first place.

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

I was outraged that he was even allowed to participate in the elections, but I guess that's South Asia for you. :-/

Meanwhile, Kerala AFAIK has basically been trolling the BJP and its allies hard and generally pissing them off. As soon as they started this BS about a nationwide beef ban, Kerala started announcing public beef cookouts. At one point, one of the BJP's ally organizations tried to retaliate with a pork cookout, which was such a huge failure that it was barely even reported.

I was outraged that he was even allowed to participate in the elections, but I guess that's South Asia for you. :-/

Meanwhile, Kerala AFAIK has basically been trolling the BJP and its allies hard and generally pissing them off. As soon as they started this BS about a nationwide beef ban, Kerala started announcing public beef cookouts. At one point, one of the BJP's ally organizations tried to retaliate with a pork cookout, which was such a huge failure that it was barely even reported.

Trump is the president of the US, brother, en todas partes se cuecen habas. (so it is everywhere)

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

I predicted Luigi Di Maio will be prime minister in early/mid February. What do you guys think?

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

It would certainly be preferable to Matteo Salvini. It seems we'll need to wait and see. I can see it taking longer than the Dutch and German negociations; it seems the parties were more ready to work with one another in those cases.

Other elections to watch this year are the legislatives in Sweden and general elections in Brazil. Maybe Marina Da Silva can get the presidency this time.

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

Former Brazilian president Lula has handed himself in to the authorities to start serving his twelve year sentence for corruption, which means he won't be eligible to stand in this year's elections, which he had a good shot of winning. He is still a candidate though, which means the election board will most likely exclude him in their ruling in August.

I see my (generally left-wing) Brazilian Facebook friends struggling with this. On the one hand, I don't think many people still believe he is completely innocent. On the other hand, his transgressions (receiving an apartment as a bribe) are seen as relatively minor in a country where half of Congress is being indicted. Especially when others (my friends claim, and I think it might be true) are not being prosecuted as actively. And Lula is still widely popular as former president of a government that finally made a real effort to tackle the endemic poverty and inequality in Brazil.

It's an interesting case: when do we stop supporting politicians for personal failings or even crimes, when we are sympathetic to their actions and ideology. I'm inclined to think of my friends as a bit hypocritical; how is Brazil to combat its endemic corruption when we turn a blind eye to those we support. On the other hand, I don't have to live with the consequences of a government led by one of Lula's corrupt, neoliberal and/or downward reactionary and autocratic (Bolsonaro) adversaries.

I've never understood why Narendra Modi was (and perhaps still is) so popular in India. Is it his charisma, is it that Indians nowadays have really shitty historical memory (even of the past few decades!), or is it both? Could it also be that the voting system is less representative than Indians make it out to be? (As I understand it, voting in India does not require literacy since you vote by party symbol).

Whenever I see Modiwadis willing to talk about this, they say the Congress Party is corrupt because Rahul Gandhi took bribes, and I'm like who in India doesn't take bribes? You can't get anything done in India without bribing someone. It's kind of bizarre to me that people seem to be swayed by his rhetoric because it doesn't strike me as particularly different from the rhetoric of previous Indian politicians. Maybe it's just that his English is better? And he has attempted to use some regional languages before, so there's some obvious appeal there, although I doubt this is the first time that's been attempted. Maybe it's partly the international attention he's been getting.

I completely agree tht you can't both support the cleaning up of politics and simulatneously support Lula. If it were a FPTP election and the two big choices were Lula and Bolsonaro, I would chose Lula. But Brazil has plenty of other candidates and two rounds.

I think the Social Democrats and Moderates will have to build a coalition at some point between now and 2030. In fact, the left and the least fascist people are going to have to start getting used to green/left-centre left-centre right coalitions all over the West.

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

Joined: Thu Jan 15, 2004 5:00 pmPosts: 3197Location: One of the dark places of the world

Junes wrote:

Former Brazilian president Lula has handed himself in to the authorities to start serving his twelve year sentence for corruption, which means he won't be eligible to stand in this year's elections, which he had a good shot of winning. He is still a candidate though, which means the election board will most likely exclude him in their ruling in August.

I see my (generally left-wing) Brazilian Facebook friends struggling with this. On the one hand, I don't think many people still believe he is completely innocent. On the other hand, his transgressions (receiving an apartment as a bribe) are seen as relatively minor in a country where half of Congress is being indicted. Especially when others (my friends claim, and I think it might be true) are not being prosecuted as actively. And Lula is still widely popular as former president of a government that finally made a real effort to tackle the endemic poverty and inequality in Brazil.

It's an interesting case: when do we stop supporting politicians for personal failings or even crimes, when we are sympathetic to their actions and ideology. I'm inclined to think of my friends as a bit hypocritical; how is Brazil to combat its endemic corruption when we turn a blind eye to those we support. On the other hand, I don't have to live with the consequences of a government led by one of Lula's corrupt, neoliberal and/or downward reactionary and autocratic (Bolsonaro) adversaries.

It's particularly difficult with Lula because the charges are so clearly politically motivated, and there are serious questions about the rule of law - the judge's chief of staff promoted a petition to imprison him, the judge attended a film that imagined Lula was guilty while he was still hearing the case, and the appeal judge applauded the conviction before hearing the appeal against it. The trial was not open to the public. Lula also alleges illegal wiretapping and data leaking, as well as harassment through repeated arbitrary detentions. What's more, the charges against him appear flimsy and vague. This isn't a Haugheyesque envelopes-of-cash thing. The chief accusation is that a construction company did some improvements to a house that is alleged to have in some way been under the control of Lula; and that the same construction company also did work for Petrobras; and that Petrobras, being state-owned, is ultimately (though not directly) under the control of the government; and that Lula was in charge of the government.

Given the rampant corruption of his rivals, which goes unchecked, the idea of sending Lula to prison for ten years on a a vague, not fully publically disclosed, lobbying-donations-and-unspecified-influence charge (which would equally be grounds to arrest 9/10ths of the US senate!), following a highly suspect legal process lead by his political enemies is really, really uncomfortable - even if, by coincidence, he happens to also be guilty.

[There are also serious questions as to whether the Brazilian political system is operable without corruption]

_________________ìtsanso, God In The Mountain, may our names inspire the deepest feelings of fear in urkos and all his ilk, for we have saved another man from his lies! I welcome back to the feast hall kal, who will never gamble again! May the eleven gods bless him!kårroť

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum